CG/08/2019 7 November 2019 Original: Spanish/English Agenda Item 7 Distribution: Limited
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OPANAL Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean General Conference XXVI Regular Session CG/08/2019 7 November 2019 Original: Spanish/English Agenda Item 7 Distribution: Limited Interpretative declarations made by States Party to Additional Protocols I and II to the Treaty of Tlatelolco Report of the Secretary-General I. Introduction 1. The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean - Treaty of Tlatelolco, contains two additional legal instruments annexed to it: Additional Protocols I and II. Both Protocols are inseparable from the Treaty of Tlatelolco. 2. The legal commitments of the States Party to the Additional Protocols I and II represent essential guarantees for the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, interpretative declarations made by some States Party to the Protocols at the time of signing and/or ratifying the Protocols limit, in some cases, such commitments and, therefore, constitute reservations. 3. Only the following two aspects can be considered as reservations among the interpretative declarations made by States Party to the Additional Protocols I and II: 1) The non-recognition of the zone of application of the Treaty of Tlatelolco - reservations submitted by France and Russia, which directly oppose a fundamental clause of the Treaty. 2) The hypothesis that a State Party to the Treaty of Tlatelolco commits military aggression with the support from a nuclear-weapon State or in support of a nuclear- weapon State - reservations made by the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Russia, which limit the guarantee of not using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against the States Party to the Treaty of Tlatelolco. 4. Through Resolution CG/Res.03/2015 of 26 November 2015, the General Conference of OPANAL resolved: “To instruct the Council to make the necessary decisions for the implementation of the action plan presented by the Secretary-General in document CG/05/2015.” CG/08/2019 2 5. In accordance with the action plan presented by the Secretary-General (CG/05/2015Corr.) and in follow-up to the aforementioned Resolution CG/Res.03/2015, during the 300th Meeting of the Council, on 10 March 2016, the Secretary-General presented the document C/08/2016 “Interpretative declarations of the States Party to Additional Protocols I and II to the Treaty of Tlatelolco. Implementation of the General Conference Resolution CG/Res.03/2015.” Document C/08/2016 contains in annex 3 memoranda, one addressed to France (on the non-recognition of the zone of application of the Treaty of Tlatelolco), and the other two addressed to Russia (on the non-recognition of the zone of application of the Treaty of Tlatelolco and on the eventuality of an act of military aggression with the support of a nuclear-weapon State or in support of a nuclear- weapon State). Each of these three memoranda contains attached a proposal of Adjustment, a type of international instrument with effect of agreement between the signatory parties of a treaty or other international instrument in order to clarify any controversy over the text of such instrument. The intention is to eliminate the misunderstandings present in the interpretative declarations that constitute reservations. 6. At its 304th Meeting held on 28 September 2016, the Council approved the memoranda prepared by the Secretary-General on the interpretative declarations made by the Russian Federation and the French Republic. 7. At its 305th Meeting held on 27 October 20161, the Council decided that “the démarches with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of France and Russia commence in the second or third week of December under the chairmanship of Brazil”, which then served as President of the Council. This decision was ratified by the General Conference at its XXIV Special Session, on 10 November 2016, by Resolution CG/E/Res.03/2016 in which it instructed the Council the following: “to commence démarches with the Governments of the Russian Federation and the French Republic, according to the action plan proposed by the Secretary-General (Doc.CG/05/2015Corr.), in order to present the memoranda C/29/2016 and C/30/2016 to the Russian Federation and C/31/2016 to the French Republic.” 1 Summary Record of the 305th Meeting of the Council held on 27 October 2016 (C/35/2016). CG/08/2019 3 II. Démarches undertaken by the Representatives of the Member States of the Council before France and Russia (2016-2019) 8. On 16 December 2016, Representatives of the five Member States of the Council in Moscow were received at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and presented the memoranda contained in documents C/29/2016 and C/30/2016 and their respective proposals of Adjustment attached. 9. On 20 December 2016, Representatives of the five Member States of the Council in Paris were received at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France and presented the memorandum contained in document C/31/2016 and their respective proposal of Adjustment attached. 10. During the 306th Council meeting, on 30 January 2017, Ambassador Enio Cordeiro, then Permanent Representative of Brazil to OPANAL presented a report on the démarches carried out by the Member States of the Council in Paris and Moscow on the interpretative declarations. This report was presented to the Council in document C/17/2017. 11. After eight months since the Council carried out démarches in Paris and Moscow, OPANAL had not received a response from France or Russia. At the 309th Meeting of the Council held on 23 August 2017, the Secretary-General submitted for consideration of the Members of the Council “to undertake a follow-up démarche in Paris and Moscow, which can be made through a joint note by the representatives of the five Member States of the Council, to express that OPANAL is awaiting for an answer.”2 The Council approved the proposal of the Secretary-General. 12. At the 310th Meeting of the Council held on 12 September 2017, the Secretary-General presented a proposal of joint note containing the request for a response to the démarches undertaken in Moscow on 16 December 2016 and Paris on 20 December 2016. 13. Through note 82/2018, dated 15 March 2018, the Embassy of Brazil in Paris presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France a joint note signed by the Heads of Mission of the Member States of the Council of OPANAL in Paris. The note reminded the French Ministry that, on 20 December 2016, representatives of the Council in Paris undertook démarches to present the memorandum and proposal of Adjustment contained in document C/31/2016, on the interpretative declarations made by France regarding the zone of application of the Treaty of Tlatelolco. In this note, the Member States of the Council indicated that they would appreciate receiving a response from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 14. On 19 March 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia received a joint note signed by the Ambassadors of the Member States of the Council —Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, and by the Chargé d'affaires of Guatemala in Moscow. This joint note was similar to that sent to France, 2 Report of the Secretariat on the démarches made by the French Republic and the Russian Federation on their interpretative declarations made when signing and/or ratifying the Additional Protocols I and II to the Treaty of Tlatelolco, presented to the Council at its 309th meeting on 23 August 2017 through document C/17/2017. CG/08/2019 4 and requested a reaction to the démarches undertaken by the Member States of the Council on 16 December 2016, regarding the reservations presented by Russia in its interpretative declaration made upon signing the Additional Protocol II to the Treaty of Tlatelolco. 15. At the 315th Meeting of the Council held on 9 August 2018, through document C/15/2018, the Representative of Brazil informed that his Embassy in Moscow received on 13 July 2018 the note N. 6139-H/ ДНКВ (see annex I) from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In that note, the Russian Foreign Ministry communicated its response to the aforementioned joint note from the Council. A copy of that note was sent to all OPANAL Member States through notes S-442/2018 of 13 August and S-443/2018 of 14 August 2018. 16. In the note from the Russian Foreign Ministry (translated into Spanish by the Russian Foreign Ministry), they expressed affirmations such as: • “The Ministry has the honor to underline that restrictions, made during the signing of the aforementioned document [Additional Protocol II to the Treaty of Tlatelolco], do not contravene the spirit and letter of the Treaty and correspond to the recognized rules of international law.” • “Russia does not intend to use them [nuclear weapons] hereinafter under rigorous observations of participating states of the Treaty of its region and with the absence of abuse Treaty positions by other nuclear powers.” 17. Russia did not accept the proposals of Adjustment submitted by the Council. It maintains its position to condition the guarantees of non-use and non-threat of use of nuclear weapons against the States Party to the Treaty of Tlatelolco. Furthermore, it still does not recognize the delimitation of the zone of application of the Treaty of Tlatelolco contained in article 4, paragraph 2. That, rather than “restrictions”, as mentioned in the Russian response, is a rejection of fundamental clauses of the Treaty and Additional Protocol II. 18. At the 314th meeting of 11 October 2018, Ambassador Julio Garro, Permanent Representative of Peru to OPANAL, reported that his country's Embassy in Paris received a note (see annex II) with the French response to the follow-up démarches of the Council.